Martial Inspiration

The martial power source needs to evoke the awesome and heroic ie not the everyday or mundane, to this end many of the abilities presented here draw inspiration from characters from ancient Celtic, Greek and Norse myth as well as figures from Arthurian legend and still others from epic literary sources. These are intended to provide rich martial artistry which goes beyond the actual field of battle and ocassionally opening up different flavors within the fight itself (see martial techniques).

Practical Arts / Skillful Methods

These are rare and challenging methods often requiring extraordinary exertion which may be learned generally by martial classes as exercises or self discovered like talents or arts which are generally akin to rituals in terms of what can be achieved and how they can thereafter be performed when suitable time and energy and sometimes equipment is available. Many enable/enhance the use of alternative skills in the performance of various activities.

1. Acupressure (Martial Artist) -- Thieving →Delay Affliction (Physical)[3]
2. Acupuncture -- Thieving → may use Thieving to acquire and perform healing arts.
3. *Animal Tongues  -- Nature/Insight →Languages [1] (use diplomacy/insight/intimidation and so on with animals with no penalty)
4. *Art of the Sensei / Martial Mastery -- insight →Forge Weapon/Armor (Create Inherent Weaponry/Defense Abilities) and Create Martial Grandmaster Training.[1]  - development tool
5. *Aura Manipulation  --Insight/Healing →(Type of Deception Stealth)[6]
6. *Aura Reading  --Insight →(sense levels and battle role)[6]
7. *Awaken Magic Device  --Intimidate→( item repeats daily)
8. *Battle Speech (Warlord) -- Ins/Dip → (Aid Other bonus for attacks and defenses adds reach)[4]
9. Beast Bond --Athletics/Nature → (accelerated familial bond creation)
10. *Blood Bond: (blood-rite) --Diplomacy →Comrades Succor[1] (the ingredients are frequently alcohol or occasionally high luxury foods)
11. *Blood Demand / Blood Oath (blood-rite) --Intimidate →Mark of Justice (ext. influence via created mental affliction)[8]
12. *Breaching Ram / Splitting the Mountain -- Dungeoneering or Athletics or Endurance→Passwall[12]
13. *Bringing In The Herd:Mounts -- Nature → Phantom Steed[6]
14. Bringing In The Herd:Swarm  -- Nature → Obscuring Swarm
15. Bringing In The Herd:Stampede  -- Nature → Dangerous Terrain
16. Cold Reading / Hidden Interrogation -- Insight  → surreptitiously gather information from someone without them knowing it. Used in spying or to claim unknown or magical sources. In the latter case it becomes effectively Insight used to perform Bluff. 
17. Consuming the Blood of the Mighty -- history (endurance) → gain legendary boon - development tool.
18. Cooking: Condensed Rations (Lembas) -- ?? →(temporary hitpoints following a meal twice per day)
19. Master of Cyphers -- history → better than linguistics you can figure out things encoded with secrecy in mind, languages too you can read any language related to one you know fluently but and with effort and time even those unrelated.
20. Death Trance / Sleep of Kings -- as per false death → False Death ++ ( also delays afflictions and suspends aging ) [4]
21. Deep Sea Swimmer (Beowulf) -- endurance/athletics → underwater distance running like effect
22. Disguise/Makeup -- Thievery (self/others) → (thievery in the place of bluff when changing a person's appearance as part of a deception you can actually aid appearance by culturally appropriate use. [2]
23. Distance Runner-- endurance/athletic/intimidation You push your body beyond any normal degree is it an act of will or sheer physicality
24. False Death -- endurance/insight/hypnosis mind over matter reduced heart rate and pain suppression a perfect innocuous disguise [2]
25. *Forge Mastery --Endurance/Athletics → Crafting items open and able to absorb into them the worlds inherent magic and bound to the will and bloodline of those it is crafted for [1]
26. *Fourth Dimensional Packing --Thief/Perc/Dun → Tenser's Disk (improved distributed carrying cap.) [1]
27. Grail Quest (item and blood-rite) -- endurance →(resurrection)
28. Heritage Claim (blood-rite) --intimidate →(binds object to user.)
29. *Heroic Exertion -- Endurance → (repeat a GMT daily.)
30. Heroes Shout -- Athletics →  (triggers social empowerments within martial culture akin to the skald's signs of influence allows usage and learning based on Athletics instead of Diplomacy)
31. Hone Weapon -- ??? → (enhance next use akin to one shot alchemical adjustment)
32. Hospitality -- history/diplomacy → (shelter, succor, sustenance)
33. Hunters Mind  -- Nature → (spend surge to maintain if damaged see through partial concealment)
34. Hurl into Space -- Athletics → (temporarily sequester an object)
35. Hypnosis - Diplomacy, Bluff → this practice allows a set of arts that are normally (self only) or medically induced to use diplomacy skill and affect others (healing surge cost  is often paid by the subject)  - Examples method acting and psychiatric treatment
36. Influence of Station -- history/diplomacy → (attendants and audience)
37. *Inspired Recuperation (Warlord) -- Diplomacy →Fantastic Recuperation[16]
38. *Jury Rig / McGyver -- Theiving, (Dungeoneering) Engineering →Incredible reparations you do not even need to know for certain what the device originally did. You are also able to spend time to improvise tools to enhance many activities like lock picks and levers and similar.
39. Library Arts (Bard)  -- History, Bluff → accelerated indexing interpretation, aid other enhancement instead of +2 on history checks in the Library get +5 and enable entire party to have +1
40. Marshal Troops / Oath of Fealty (Warlord) -- History/Diplomacy → (efficient acq. and application of troops/followers towards a challenge ) [6]
41. Messenger Birds -- Nature → Animal Messenger (more range but more limited destinations sometimes using pheromones to can be used to temporarily change destinations )
42. Method Acting -- Insight  → subject may use insight in place of bluff to play a role and pretend they are someone other than themselves.
43. Mimicry -- Perception → (perception  in place of bluff when changing your voice is a fundamental part of a deception this also allows perception to be used in place of nature while foraging for meat by using animal calls preparation time involves listening to an analysis of the sound/voice you are to mimic.)
44. *Oath of Independence / Riddle of Steel  -- Athletics / Endurance →Disenchant (Destroy magic item you can grasp turns it into a useless chunks and bits you can convert their value into karma, it can be hard to safely donate a magic weapon to charity)[6] - dev  tool.
45. *Oath Binding -- Insight/Diplomacy → Create Grandmaster Training.[4] - development tool.
46. *Oath of Truth (blood-rite) -- Intimidate → (stutter/tongue swells if they lie)[2]
47.  Preys Instinct: *Obscure Trail (Scout/Ranger/Rogue) -- Nature / Streetwise/ Dungeoneering → ( sense and lose adversary following you even a persistent enemy will have lost you for a time )[1]
48. Preys Instinct: *Double Back -- Perception (Nature|Streetwise) → gain surprise on those trailing
49. Parkour (French Military) -- Acrobatics / Athletics → (evade difficult terrain and fast climbing.)
50. Peerless Tracker -- Nature →(perfect safe travel to the target)
51. Reincarnative/Akashic/Ancestral Dream (blood-rite)  -- History →(skilled sleepwalking) karma cost from task performed [2]
52. *Psychiatric Treatment --Insight →Delay (Mental) Affliction[4]
53. Reading the Battle/Eyes of the Huntress-- perception/nature Identifying incredible amountss of information about creatures and what they did based on the tell tale signs of a battle
54. Skillful Guide (terrain) -- Insight/Diplomacy → Enhances "aid other" making it multiple target and when pushed speeds protracted activity at the cost of a healing surge
55. *Surgery (Croaker/Aesclepius/Dian Cecht)  -- Healing / Thieving →Remove (physical) Affliction.[6]
56. *Surge of Strength   -- Athletics / Endurance / Intimidation / →A burst of controlled physical power [5]
57. Sweat It Out -- Endurance/Athletics(self)/Healing→ Cure Disease
58. The Perfect Price -- Insight → Bribery++ This ability represents analysing a subject and discovering things they value more than their actual price inorder to allow you trade them in place of the normal exchange the mechanical effect is a discount its not necessarily bribery though that is a context players may see it most often used, it can take significant investment of time to fulfill or acquire what is desired.
59. *Training Montage / Training From Hell -- Endurance → Retrain an Ability  ( Also allows converting items in to Karma and acquisition of new GMT or Martial Techniques) [12] - development tool.
60. *Trained Preparedness (Scout/Warlord) -- Insight/Streetwise →(purchase on the fly)
61. *Transcendental Meditation / Sleeping in the Saddle (Martial Artist/Soldier) -- End/Heal →Alarm  [1]
62. Travelers Foresight(Ranger/Soldier) -- Insight/Nature →Direction Sense and Weather Prediction, you are never disoriented nor often surprised by natures whims
63. Treetop Runner/Brachiation -- Acrobatics or Athletics - effects similar to flight no tracks and no impact of most forms of difficult or dangerous terrain and accelerated speed  but over forest areas and similar (choose evades landbound encounters or skyward)
64. *Wrestling with Death (blood-rite) -- Athletics AND Insight →Cure (Mortal) Disease[6]

Integrating with 4e

At some level these practical arts a replacement for martial practices and you shouldnt need Martial Power II to use them the practices from that book have been replaced reballanced and represented in these rules. If martial practices had been a part and parcel of the original 4e design you can pretty much garantee they would have been integrated into classes like the Warlord and Monk and possibly Ranger/Rogue just as the Wizard and Cleric and similar caster classes have rituals by default, to that end we will be making adjustments to various classes to use the Practical Arts.

Class Specific

To maintain flexibility arts are not class specific however quite a few will be designated favored, favored for a class get a bonus +2 on their performance roll.

Multiclassing should allow the hero the benefit of favored arts of the class you multi-class into (or perhaps pick 4 to be favored). Certain backgrounds may have favored arts as well.(Nobles for instance likely have influence of station and mayhaps others)

Prices of Power in Practice

One of the things MPIII intends is to assure that the price of practical arts are “worth it”.

What is the value of knowing/employing the right practice when it really counts? - the DMG2 gives us an answer - an auto success in a skill challenge, this is a take out from those guidelines associated with improvised use of money and healing surges, they will be leveraged fairly heavily. So if you do not agree with this (perhaps thinking it under valued the influence of gold ) you might need to adjust the numbers here. Additionally these rules actually maintain the vaule of skill checks while doing this.

The DMG2 accredited pocket cash of 1/10 of a magic item cost (the monetary price of a success in a skill challenge) equates to one healing surge expenditure. Examining the cost of rituals brings the conclusion that Martial Practices are usually too expensive when compared to rituals. (looking at the numbers range from ¼ to ½ what one would expect). The proposed method for bringing that cost in line for MPIII is a skill check in the skill governing the practice to reduce a practices healing surge cost by 1 in effect allowing the average to approximately match ritual efficiency.

Variable Cost Chart

Based on an associated skill check

Roll	Cost
30+	1/50th magic item cost at level
21 - 29	1/40th magic item cost at level
11 - 20	1/30th magic item cost at level
10 or less	1/20th magic item cost at level

Optionally a natural 20 is free and a natural 1 is full 1/10 the cost of an item.

Level in the table is not necessarily the level at which you gain the art but rather more of a use cost based on usefulness - many arts may be gained later but have lower level usage costs. Hurl into space is an example its DC is 16 around level 4 but its rather epic in flavor so only obtained much later.

Enumerated Usage Costs and Difficulties to reduce HS cost

level	[1/10]	1/50	1/40	1/30	1/20	DC
1	[36]	7	9	12	18	15
2	[52]	10	13	17	26
3	[68]	13	15	23	34	16
4	[84]	17	21	28	42
5	[100]	20	25	33	50	17
6	[180]	36	45	60	90
7	[260]	52	65	87	130	18
8	[340]	68	85	113	170
9	[420]	84	105	140	210	19
10	[500]	100	125	153	250
11	[900]	180	225	300	450	20
12	[1300]	260	325	433	650
13	[1700]	340	425	533	850	21
14	[2100]	420	525	700	1050
15	[2500]	500	625	833	1250	22
16	[4500]	900	1125	1500	2250
17	[6500]	1300	1525	2166	3250	23
18	[8500]	1700	2125	2825	4250
19	[10500]	2100	2625	3500	5250	24
20	[12500]	2500	3125	4166	6250
21	[22500]	4500	5625	7250	11250	25
22	[32500]	6500	8125	10830	16250
23	[42500]	8500	10625	14500	21250	26
24	[52500]	10500	13125	17300	26250
25	[62500]	12500	15625	20833	31250	27
26	[112500]	22500	28125	37500	55250
27	[162500]	34100	40625	54167	81250	28
28	[212500]	42500	53125	70,833	106250
29	[312500]	64100	78125	104167	156250	29
30	[562500]	112500	140625	187500	256250	30